For our Bourbon County, Ky., cousins, I downloaded this from an internet site
titled "Ruddle's Station, Ky." You may note that some of the names of the
inhabitants and defenders of Ruddle's Station are ancestors of ours.

Bob Francis

[RUDDLES STATION, KY]

"In 1775 John Hinkston and other settlers built fifteen crude
cabins on a broad flat ridge above the South Fork of the Licking
River, along an old game trail from McClelland's Station (Scott
County) to Lower Blue Licks. This site is now in Harrison County.
Simon Kenton and Thomas Williams helped build a blockhouse at the
station in the winter of 1776-77. Indian threats then caused its
abandonment. Isaac Ruddell enlarged and fortified the station in
1779; after that, the site was interchangeably referred to as
Ruddell's or Hinkston's. A large number of Pennsylvania German
families lived there and at Martin's Station, only a few miles
away. Ruddell's Station was attacked by Capt. Henry Byrd and his
British and Indian troops in 1780. About twenty inhabitants were
killed at the site. The survivors were subjected to a forced march
to Detroit, where they remained prisoners for the remainder of the
Revolutionary War. The bones of the victims were later gathered
and buried in a mass grave covered with stones. The site was
included in Hinkston's 1,400-acre settlement and preemptive grant,
filed in 1784, and is marked by a stone monument." See Destruction
of Ruddle's and Martin's Forts in the Revolutionary War,
(Frankfort, Ky., 1957). Written by Nancy O'Malley.
Kentucky Encyclopedia - 1992

Ruddle's Station was on the East bank of the Licking River
SouthEast of Cynthiana in Harrison Co. On a more personal note
some of these folks were my ancestors (John and Elizabeth
(BRIDGEWATER) CONWAY).

Here is my family's account (somewhat condensed):

There had been a lot of rain that Spring and the
settlers were not expecting an attack from the North.
They did get a warning of potential indian trouble and
Monday June 30, 1780 gathered in Ruddles Station.
Tuesday, some of the boys were sent across the creek to
drive some stray cows into the Stockade. Heavy rain had
fallen the night before the settlers thought it would
delay any attack. Unfortunately McKee and his Indians
and cannon had landed at Falmouth and had arrived early
that morning. The boys were making a lot of noise and
Joseph Conway was climbing up the opposite bank when he
was shot and scalped. The wound was not fatal and after
an hour or two managed to crawl across the creek and
into the Stockade.

The attack resumed at one when Byrd and the rest of the
British and Indians arrived. The settlers defended
themselves vigorously. After two shots from the cannon
broke the forts walls in, it was clear they could not
hold out. They were promised they would not be killed if
they surrendered. They surrendered, and the indians
promptly set on them tomahawking and scalping the old
people and infants. Everything in the fort was stolen or
destroyed and by 4pm, the remainder of the captives were
begun on the long walk to Detroit. Among them the Conway
family. This was the first Kentucky fort to surrender.

The next morning, Joseph's scalped head was bleeding
badly. A woman noticed and reached down into an old tree
stump and got a handful of spider webs and matted them
on the wound, which stopped the bleeding and saved the
boy's life...

There are several conflicting dates for the attacks on Ruddle's
and Martin's Stations. Ardery says June 24, 1780 for Martin's.
Coleman says Byrd arrived in Cinc'y on June 9 and June 26 for
Martin's. In another of Coleman's books, he says June 24th for
Ruddle's. Drake/Wilson/Ardery, say June 22, 1780 for both.

For Ruddle's (4 or 5 miles from Martin's), Mann says June 1780 on
a Sunday morning for the first attack, then "2 or 3 days later"
finally captured and then Martin's that same day. "History of
Bourbon County" says June 1780 as does Ardery. Diane Perrine Coon
suggests 19 June 1780. My family account says Tuesday, July 1,
1780; and the initial attack, capture and then Martin's taken on
the same day. The KY Encyclopedia just says 1780.

Note: June 19 was on a Monday. June 22 was a Thursday, June 24,
Saturday and the 26th Monday. July 1 was on a Saturday.

After the Conway family was released from captivity they returned
to their home in Kentucky. Joseph's brother, John Jr. married Anne
Sutton in 1790, remained on the same farm and reared their family.
John & Ann Conway were my g...grandparents.

Another family taken were the James Ruddell family who later
married into the Mullikin family.